For me, birthdays are a lot like celebrating New Years Day. It’s a fresh start. A time to reflect, a time to challenge yourself and a time to change. For the last few years, I’ve created a list of things on my birthday that I want to accomplish before my next birthday. When I was 25, it was 25 things; when I was 27, it was 27 things, etc. Some are health-related, some are hobby-related, some are spiritually-related, and some are simply random, personal goals that I include every year. Each is meaningful to me in a different way, and I look forward to looking back on them this time next year to see what I’ve accomplished. Feel free to ask me about them; each has its own story and reason for inclusion on the list.
In no particular order, here are my 28 things to accomplish before my 29th birthday:
1. Do hard things.
2. Surrender my future to Christ. (Check out: http://robertwells.tripod.com/surrender.html)
3. Pursue greatness in all things.
4. Find a mentor. (Anyone know a Christian woman who’s been successful in business and has a family? Does she like coffee? I’d love to chat.)
5. Be a mentor.
6. Try a new recipe each week.
7. Read one non-school book a month.
8. Learn to make a homemade pie crust.
9. Finish what I start.
10. Take ownership of my mistakes.
11. Run a 10K. (This one intimidates me!)
12. Become a prayer warrior. (Oh to be like Kathy Patton or Laurie Lischke…)
13. Take action, avoid distraction.
14. Send birthday cards on time! (I’m sooo bad at this.)
15. Read the Bible from cover to cover again.
16. Call one important person in my life each week.
17. Blog weekly.
18. Take more pictures.
19. Be a selfless listener.
20. Learn to make homemade bread.
21. Learn to make homemade Thai food. (This is my favorite type of food.)
22. Learn to make tirimisu. (And this is my all-time favorite dessert!)
23. Treat my body like the temple God created it to be.
24. Plan monthly adventures with Brent.
25. Embrace my role as Brent’s help mate.
26. Write monthly letters to the girl we sponsor in India through CRI.
27. Write a book: THAT Girl. (This one’s complicated…)
28. Serve the poorest of the poor. (This one’s heavy on my heart, and I don’t know where to go with it.)
This year, I also selected a verse to memorize, dwell on and live out this year:
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” -Psalm 37:4
So that’s my heart. We’ll see where it lands in 365 days.
Ashley,
The list is so doable and so you. I found myself with the same thoughts and you’ve planted an urgency seed in my heart to write down my goals for the next 2 to 5 years. What an inspiration you are…not only to your family but to friends and people you may never meet.
Love n Hugs and lots of prayer,
Dad
Thanks Dad
Encouragement from you is always appreciated.
Hey Girl, Happy Birthday a few days later. My 50th birthday is Sept 6th. Got a few things rattling around in my brain for a list so the challenge is pretty high but , wow what an opportunity to see the LORD plans for me. I can’t wait to make a list and see GOD show up. What a blessing! God has a hand in all your doings and don’tings so have fun with watching HIM prioritize and implement ,and shaping how you experience this year. Love you, you beautiful neice of mine… Aunt Susan
I love this! I just finished evaluating my 2010 goals and am starting to write my goals for 2011.